Some musical instruments require tuning to a particular pitch to be played properly, and tympani present an especially difficult tuning challenge in that for many musical pieces the pitch of the tympani must be adjusted while the piece is being played. In the course of playing a single piece a tympanist may have to return each tympani several times, as well as check the pitch of the drums already tuned to assure that they are still in tune. The customary way of tuning a tympani is for the tympanist to place his ear near the tympanum of the tympani being tuned and then gently depress and release the tympanum whith his thumb to cause the tympanum to vibrate and make a sound. The tympanist listens to this sound and changes the tension in the tympanum to achieve the desired pitch, using his ear aided either by a tuning fork or a pitch pipe. Doing this during a performance, particularly without distracting nearby musicians, is difficult. The pitch or tone of the tympani is determined by the frequency at which the tympanum vibrates when the tympani is played and vibration frequency is determined by the tension in the tympanum. Tympani are generally all provided with adjustable mechanisms, usually operated by a foot pedal, for changing the tension in the tympanum to accomplish tuning. However, it has proven to be so difficult a task to tune a tympani so that it improves the music, particularly retuning in the midst of a piece when several tympani are employed, that few persons have become accomplished tympanists. As a result thre are few conductors or composers who have been able to fully exploit the potential of the tympani.
There have been a number of attempts in the prior art to provide a method and apparatus for easily and rapidly tuning a tympani. One such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,163,075 issued to F. M. Toperzer, Jr. There have been several mechanical devices which were intended to provide a visual indication of the pitch of the tympanum. Such devices, however, actually only provided a visual indication of the position of the foot pedal of the tympanum tension adjusting mechanism. There is, of course, a small correlation between the position of the foot pedal and the tension of the tympanum, but this type of device has not achieved wide acceptance among tympanists because of it inherent inaccuracies in monitoring the pitch. There have alos been prior art devices which have determined and adjusted the pitch of a tympanum by electrooptical means, as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,462 issued to Denov, et. al. Such an electro-optical device would be expensive to manufacture, more expansive to purchase, and not readily applied to an existing tympani. Another disadvantage would be that the tympani must be played for the electro-optical device to read the pitch.
There is a need for an inexpensive, easy to use tuning device that can be adapted for use on existing tympani. Such a device will make it must easier for a person to become an accomplished tympanist. This will in turn result in increased participation of the tympani in musical performances with an accompanying improvement in quality and listening pleasure provided by such performances.